My son is now 10 + has always been home schooled. My daughter, however, went to public school for kindergarten + first grade. When she completed her first grade year this past June, we began home schooling her over the summer as a trial run. We wanted to make sure she would adjust well + actually enjoy being taught at home. I wanted it to be an option for her; she adjusted well and home schooling in a one-on-one setting is working great.

Having both of the kidlets home now is a blessing. Over the summer, Elijah read over 60 books! Nevaeh read almost 30; which is FANTASTIC considering that the public school she had just been pulled from considered her “developmentally delayed”. This year, we have been able to find a lot of great free materials to use in our homeschool.

Math and Language arts are completed individually since they are on different levels. For these we use workbooks that we actually have picked up from Aldi’s and the Dollar Tree. For math, we are also testing out a new website A+ Tutor Soft. It has lesson plans for each grade level as well as teacher guides and assessment tests. Alieo Games is another new site that we have began using for creative writing. To give it a try, sign up + use coupon code FIRSTYEARFREE for an unlimited trial until August 31st 2016!

Social Studies + Science comes in many forms. Netflix documentaries which I get a lot of great ideas from a FB Group called “Homeschooling with Netflix”. We also use Kids Discover Free Lesson Plans which includes student pages and teacher guides. And lastly, we will begin using Elementary Life Science from the Lab of Mr. Q starting in January 2016. The kids have a workbook called “The Map Book” that they have learned 30 of the 50 states + capitals since mid-August. Next we’ll work on the Presidents of the US, before moving on to other countries.

If you are a homeschool family, what curriculum materials are you using this year?

This year Elijah has been doing better with sitting still and actually using worksheets and book work. Last year was mostly learning through daily life, educational games on the computer and documentaries (he’s beyond obsessed with them). Nevaeh is still not of age for school, however she has been going through a lot of the same routine that her older brother has this year. She seems eager to learn just because she sees her brother doing it. Big smiley in my book.

This year, Elijah has been going through “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” as well as using flash cards for phonics and sight words. Our flash cards came from Starskills. I will be posting a review of the Starskills Early Learning Program that is 40 weeks long, broken down into four (4) ten week sections. We have began this program over the last few weeks and I do highly recommend it so far. We also use Starskills for printable alphabet + numbers, counting worksheets and more. You can keep up to date with new Starskills programs on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/starskills.

We use a set of Weekly Reader “Just Ask” books for reading/comprehension. Angel Bear Yoga (physical fitness, building positive character traits, building communication + more). And we just began using ABC Bible Verses that we found through pinterest that we printed out and fit inside of baseball card holders for a weekly bible verse (devotional + memorization).

Other than that, we fit in math, arts and crafts, life skills, etc into our everday living. Measuring in the kitchen, making our own laundry + cleaning supplies, folding + putting away their own clothes, choosing the cheapest of a certain item in the store, saving + spending their own money, etc. The list goes on in our homeschool.

PS: If you don’t remember my post at the beginning of this school year (here), I use free printables from Five J’s to create my homeschool binder (yearly attendance chart, weekly assignment sheets). I also use DonnaYoung.org for printables for our reading list and a google doc file with an ongoing list of documentaries that we have watched.

I began by creating a binder using www.fivejs.com free printables to plan our school year out and to create our schedule. We do use more of an unschooling approach allowing the kidlets to learn through everyday living.

Home Ec and Life Skills such as cooking, cleaning, and hygiene are going to be some of our big points this year to focus on. With Elijah being Autistic, I think this is important for him. We will also concentrate on phonics, arts and crafts, animal science (including dinosaurs), math (counting, time, measurements, etc) and physical education.

Elijah is pretty excited to begin ‘schooling’ now so he chose to make corndog muffins for lunch today. A great idea that we found on pintrest this morning.

My children have many allergies. Making homemade crafts & cleaning supplies are one way I can control what they come in contact with. Here are a few ‘recipes’ for craft supplies that I have gathered over time.

Glitter

Supplies:
1c salt
ziploc bag
food coloring
cookie sheet

Instructions:
Seperate salt into piles, and mix each pile with food coloring in a ziploc bag. Spread salt our on a cookie sheet and let dry. Store extra glitter in a tupperware container. Best of all glitter made fr
om salt can’t cut your eyes like regular store bought glitter.

Modeling Clay

Supplies:
1c. salt
2c. flour
1c. water
food coloring to tint

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together for about 5 minutes and then it is ready to use. To keep the clay from drying out you can store it in tuperware containers.

Instructions:
Mix the plaster of paris and most of the water together, add 1-2 tbs. of tempera paint and mix well. Add enough water to thicken mixture. Pour into ice cube tray and let dry, then just pop it out and it is ready to use.

Procedure:
Grate bar of soap until it is in fine shreds. Melt with 1/2 cup water over med heat. In a bowl combine cornstarch, 1/2 cup water, and melted soap mixture. Stir to blend. Let mixture sit and thicken. Divide into as many separate bowls as you want colors (so for 6 colors, use 6 bowls) Stir in ‘colors”

For colors: Get creative…you can mix 1/4 cup fruit juices with 2 cups of water, or you can add the juice from canned beets (straight instead of water). For browns you can use tea, for yellow you can mix turmeric with a little bit of water to make a paste. Once your dough is prepared, you can kneed in the colors.

NOTE: For thicker consistency paint: Mix 1 packet of gelatin with 1/4 cup of water. Add to the cornstarch, water and melted soap mixture.

Note: You can add a few drops of color after you stir in the water (over the heat) to get colored dough. Get creative…you can mix 1/4 cup fruit juices with 2 cups of water, or you can add the juice from canned beets (straight instead of water). For browns you can use tea, for yellow you can mix turmeric with a little bit of water to make a paste. Once your dough is prepared, you can kneed in the colors.

Subway’s Random Acts of Fitness is back! Teachers + Homeschools can request a free fitness kit to help engage the kids in healthy activities for body and mind. Head over to Subway Kids to request your kit.

As a homeschool family, I know that children learn at their own pace. However, I know some like to follow a basic guideline for their children’s lessons so I wanted to share this for those that haven’t came across it yet.

World Book Encyclopedia and Learning Resources has a selection of free resources that could be very useful to use. There is a list for Typical Courses of Study to learn what subjects are taught at different grade levels, Trivia Quizes, a Cyber Camp (best for ages 4 – 8 or so) and much more.